The demand for clean and healthy drinking water is increasing dramatically, which is being driven by the rapid growth in population and standards of living across the globe. This demand has translated into a continuing need for safe, clean, and easy to use water dispensers, including for both hot and cold water.
Many of the currently-available bottled water dispensers are constructed from a combination of steel and plastic materials. More particularly, many of the currently-available water dispensers have at least two front panels, often with a lower front panel being constructed of steel and the upper (or upper and middle) front panels being constructed of plastic. The upper (or upper and middle) front panels are often constructed from plastic to allow a recessed area to be easily formed in the middle, front portion of the dispenser, which is configured to house the water spout(s) and make room for a so-called drip tray (onto which a container may be placed to receive water). These plastic parts may be formed using, for example, injection molding procedures or other methods known in the art.
The use of plastic materials to form these panels of a water dispenser suffers from at least several drawbacks. For example, plastic materials are not as dense as, for example, stainless steel. As such, manufacturing the front panels with plastic reduces the total weight and sturdiness of the dispenser. In addition, a trend has emerged which favors a complete stainless steel look on the front area of appliances, which is relatively easy to manufacture for appliances having a substantially planar front side, such as refrigerators. However, for appliances having more contoured front surfaces, manufacturing such contoured surfaces using stainless steel can be considerably more difficult and cost-intensive.
As the following will demonstrate, many of the foregoing problems with currently-available water dispensers are addressed by the present invention.